RPI President Jackson earned $5.8 million

Includes deferred retention and other payments, plus salary to lead school

RPI President Shirley Jackson, right, prepares to talk with Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce President Linda Hillman (not pictured) during Lunch with a Leader on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

RPI President Shirley Jackson, right, prepares to talk with Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce President Linda Hillman (not pictured) during Lunch with a Leader on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at Hilton

RPI President Shirley Jackson, right, prepares to talk with Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce President Linda Hillman (not pictured) during Lunch with a Leader on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

RPI President Shirley Jackson, right, prepares to talk with Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce President Linda Hillman (not pictured) during Lunch with a Leader on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at Hilton

TROY — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson may be leapfrogging back into the ranks of the nation’s highest-paid college presidents, according to a recent tax filing from the school.

Her total compensation was listed at $5.877 million in the 2017 tax filing, which was obtained by the Times Union.

In addition to her $1.168 million base pay, she received a $3.647 million deferred compensation payment.

The 2017 filing reflects the fiscal year that ran through the end of June 2018.

Such payments are typically given as inducements for an executive to stay on the job and the school acknowledged it was related to retention.

Jackson’s contract last December was renewed through June 2022.

The salary data is filed with the federal Internal Revenue Service by not-for-profit organizations such as colleges in order to retain their non-taxable status. While the filings are annual, they can often lag for a year or more and this one hasn’t yet been put on file with the IRS.

It’s not the first year that Jackson has received a deferred payment.

The most recent payment is still less than the total compensation of $7,143,312 she received in 2012, putting her at the top of the national list for college presidents pay that year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education which conducts an annual survey.

The December 2018 survey put Baylor University’s Kenneth Starr at the top of the list for that year, leading the Texas school with a $4.9 million package. Jackson was in 22nd place that year at $1.4 million.

A former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jackson is a physicist by training.

She came to RPI in 1999. In December she had her contract extended through June 2022, putting her on track to be the school's second-longest serving leader behind Palmer Ricketts, who was in office for 33 years in the early 20th century.

Jackson also serves on a number of corporate boards. A Times Union story in 2012 calculated that she earned more than $1.3 million for being on the boards of firms ranging from Marathon Oil to IBM and FedEx.

Jackson’s tenure, however, has been controversial with critics assailing what they say is an imperial management style and some costly decisions.

A group of dissident alumni who started an organization, Renew Rensselaer, have documented what they say is the school’s growing debt load. The have noted that RPI’s financial liabilities have risen from $203.7 million in 2000 to $973.1 million in 2018.

Additionally, they say research expenditures at the science and technological university are outstripping revenues.

Mostly recently, some have questioned a mandatory summer program for those finishing their sophomore year. While it will dovetail with a special individual study term for juniors, critics note that the program has also allowed for larger class sizes and more fees for food and lodging.

Jackson has also been battling the school’s substantial Greek life component with a crackdown on alcohol and recruiting. Members of RPI’s fraternities and sororities say they’ve been unfairly blamed for some alcohol and sex assault episodes at the school.

Jackson has does have the backing of the school’s board of trustees who credit her with a number of successes in growing the approximately 7,900-student school and overseeing a $1.4 billion capital campaign.

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RPI spokeswoman Richie Hunter defended Jackson’s pay in a written statement, saying “Rensselaer is proud of Dr. Jackson's continued excellent service as President. The Board of Trustees conducts a thorough evaluation of President Jackson’s overall performance every year and recognizes the exemplary skill she has shown in performing her job. President Jackson’s compensation reflects the high level of achievement and expertise she continues to demonstrate.”

She added that “(a)nnually, the Board receives recommendations from its external compensation analyst regarding presidential compensation. Based on these recommendations and the Board's comprehensive assessment of her performance, it supports Dr. Jackson's compensation, which was inclusive of a retention benefit that was vested over a five-year service period.”

Retention payments and deferred compensation agreements are among the sophisticated vehicles that colleges and universities over the past decade have used to bolster the pay of their top officials, said James Finkelstein, a professor emeritus at George Mason University who has studied the pay given to leaders in higher education.

Notably, some deferred compensation plans have tax advantages. But because not-for-profit schools pay no taxes, the plans are configured to benefit the college or university presidents.

“These deferred compensation programs for university presidents, not only have they become very lucrative, they have become very complicated too,” Finkelstein said.

For public universities, which have to disclose details of their payments, such arrangements can obscure how much a campus leader is actually earning.

Private schools like RPI, though, don’t have to reveal their contracts.

Undergraduate tuition and fees for RPI in 2019-20 year is approximately $54,000 with another $15,580 for room and board. With supplies, books and various fees it will total $73,816 for the 2019-20 year, according to the university's website.